Silver Lantern
by ChezaGhost
Summary: Tack sits alone in a hospital, watching the nurses go by. Waiting for the time to visit the patient in room #209. He begins to wonder about how things are going to turn out.
1. Chapter 2

Tack sleepily opened his eyes to the constant beep of his alarm clock, his mind was barely with him as a tired arm reached out and shut it off. He rolled onto his back from his side sleeping position and let out a loud yawn as he blinked his eyes a couple of times before rubbing them, his bed was still nice and warm from a nights worth of his body heat. Sitting up, he let his blurry blue eyes glance around the bedroom he was sleeping in. _Yep, still here,_ he thought as he began to swing his legs over the side of his tall 4 post bed and stood up. It was nice actually, they had arranged it to look like his old apartment room was like before he had died. His bed sat in the center of the room against one of the walls. Their were a profuse amount of clothes on the ground, even a bachelor in death. A half hearted smile was drawn across his face as he saw the picture of a little brunette girl about the age of 5 or 6 sat next to his alarm clock, her radiant smile blaring back at him. That reminded him ,he looked at the clock sitting next to the picture. It read 8:00 am, good he had an hour.

He wanted to go into to work early today because he had to ask Lucy some questions. He decided to work out for about 20 minutes before jumping in the shower. Before when he first came here he had been a workout maniac so that he had at least something to do, but recently he would only work out every now and then, even thought he was dead didn't mean he didn't want to stay in shape.

Tack felt particularly happy today. He had finally found something to occupy his time now, its funny how even though he has worked here for a year, he never really wanted to know anything about this place. Sure he figured out a couple things. That people do die randomly, but for ore deviant purposes he knew. Mostly to keep the population down, and even though he didn't agree with children being hurt in the middle of it, it was the idea of "fairness" as they had described to him. Other then doing his job he hadn't questioned to much, like where do the souls go once he had taken them? It was time to ask some questions. He figured it was from the grief of dying, which Lucy says that everyone has once they first get here. He knew the very basics but that's it and no more. He believed that he finally has accepted that he was dead. PLain and simple, don't know how he died or why he was chosen for this job, apparently many were. This wasn't a dream anymore to him. There was no going back now, he knew that for a fact. Now, he just wanted to learn about his new reality. After his shower he dressed in his normal attire of black slacks, a forest green tang top and his normal black jacket. He quickly combed his neck length hair from being all sleep tussled and crazy looking, and walked into the kitchen. He chose to go without coffee today as he was already awake with excitement. He had always been a coffee drinker and usually had at least two cups before going to work. As the small pleasures in death.

He headed toward the front door and opened it, walking into large white room adorned with many other white doors and a hallway to his left. Thats what Home was to him. Only ever seeing it from the inside, he imagined it being like a large apartment building where the designer had picture a snowy white day as inspiration. Every which way you looked there were white hallways adorned with white doors, all of which had a number printed in gold on it. All of these hallways lead to one place, a large oval room with a young blond woman dressed in all nicely in white,to blend in with the wallpaper, sat at a large desk that matched the room. On top of the desk were three computers and the only color in the entire room besides the radiant blonde hair of the woman, was a single red door that led as a gateway back home. Each messenger had their own portable way back Home. The girls face flared a smile when her green eyes saw him walk through his door.

"Oh Tack, it's early to see you up and about,"the blonde continued smiling brightly as he sauntered up to the desk. Tack replied with a smile as well,leaning one arm against the desk. Her fingers typed almost mindlessly as she started printing out a piece of paper,which seemed to be a list of some sort. After it was done printing it she handed it to Tack, one hand still typing. He grabbed the page from her and gazed down it real fast before folding it and putting it in his pocket. Noting this Lucy looked up from her work.

"You don't have your book on you? I thought you were coming in early for work?"

"Nope not today Luc,"he said almost whispering. He ran a hand through his raven hair.

"Well then,what do you want,you come in here early but also with no coffee,what's going on?"she asked suspiciously as well as stop typing.

"Luc,you've come to know me over the year right?"he said linking his fingers together,he had always had a hand problem,whenever he had something to say or was nervous he like to play with his hands,linking them rubbing them anything to keep his mind off of things.

"Of course I have to get to know most of the level 3's"

"Level 3's so that's what I am,what the hell does that mean?"

"Ah, I see whats going on,finally starting to wonder about things right? Don't worry,your not the only one who's asked this late."

"Didn't know I was late,do people really get used to being dead early?"He asked sarcastically.

"Well there are 4 levels. Level 1's get to go to heaven lev-"

"Wait there IS a heaven"he remark,eyes opened wide. Even when he was alive he never believed in a "heaven" or anything. Dying and coming to work here seemed to phone his assumption there was none even more. He felt a little pang in his chest, not that he was the greatest person when he was alive but he figured he wasn't that bad. Who got to decide who went to heaven? Does that mean there is a hell too?

"Thank for interrupting"she said slightly annoyed "But yes there is a heaven, but its not like mortals views on heaven. Much different actually, though all the same amazing I guess. Although its not that great in my eyes. Level 2's where bad people on earth,not very bad,but bad enough none the less. They work in heaven."

"Wait so the bad people get to go into heaven to?

"In a sense but I said work,believe me heaven is more a retirement home the a place of bliss. Level 2's do stuff like preparing food cleaning things and ect. Kind of a boring place if you ask me. Now level 3's in this case you are the closes things to a grim reaper as possible. We like to call you "messengers" to soften the blow of how your killing people. You harvest people's souls and put them into your lantern. We know how many you have collected and you grow stronger with the more you collect. As you know already you come to me and I print you a page of names,and sadly but surely,if you do your job right,they die." she said leaning back in her chair"I would say you level 3's get the best of it,you get your own apartment and you actually have a human body,which I forgot to add the inhabitants of heaven don't,and you are the only ones that can go to earth. I would say the most interesting thing about it all is that all of the Level 3's have different looking lanterns. Thats one thing we don't have the power over, only your soul does."

Tack shook his head,so mush information at once,"I never knew that, but I guess i have never met another messenger to compare lanterns to. I could never imagine a lantern could harvest a soul "

"Well" she said taping her pen against her lips "Its the most advanced way we have so far,believe me 100 years ago it was done much MUCH less,uh, delicately. Something involving a place called Stone hedge and stuff"she said smiling.

He took a slender hand and ran it through his hair,all this time,why didn't he ask about any of this before? His blue obelisk eyes looked around the room,so all of the white doors must be apartments for all of the other Level 3's. That made him start wondering."How come I've never seen another level 3?"he asked suspiciously.

"Well their are about 300,000 of you,and most of the time they are off doing their job. People are dieing all the time all over the world, so don't be surprised."she said,looking back at her work.

"Wow that's a lot"he replied honestly. He still had so many questions,but he knew he had to take it slowly or his brain might explode from all the new information. He sighed and shrugged it off for now. He would digest what he just found out and ask more later,for now he needed a cup of coffee. He yawned from the lack of caffeine and started walking back to his house door"Ok Luc,i'll catch ya later I need some energy." he said raising a hand to wave.

"Oh,wait...Tack"Lucy said standing up real fast,he turned around to see her holding out a piece of paper. He walked over to her and took it from her grasp.

"I almost forgot,your due for vacation soon"

"We get vacation? That seems a little odd,don't you think? I mean we're dead"

"Correction,your dead,I was never alive to begin with,"

"Oh..."he said thinking. Never alive?

"Anyway,you have one of two choices,you may either take two weeks off here,pretty much staying in your house and such. Or you can go for a week down to earth,and do whatever."she said sitting back down.

"I can go down to earth for a week? Would I be able to go see anybody I knew from...you know,back then?"he asked eagerly,if he could he would go see Anna. Hope resided in his heart. To be able to feel again, to have people see you and hold conversations with you. Not walking around like a ghost land.

"Well,you can't go in your original form but you can pick a husk out from the selection,we have all different varieties."she said showing him her computer screen after a couple clicks. People of all different shapes and size were on the screen.

"You mean I get to just pick a body?"

"Yep,of course its nobody living already,you get to pick a name and slight background...But ,there is a small down fall to the whole thing when your week is up and you need to come back to work,we have to kill you."

"Kill me!"

"Not in that sense! Just your body, just your fragile blood filled body, as soon as you die you will come back here. But since you can feel pain and such when your down there it will hurt. At least sometimes,the generator is completely random for the cause of death so you could either get death in your sleep or getting hacked away by a murderer."she said typing looking out on the other computer.

"You guys can't control it?"

"Kinda when we asked Lenny to construct it we wanted to be able to shuffle the deaths randomly, you know out of fairness, but he seemed to forget to delete the bad ones. He said something like disrupting the balance of life,but I mean come on your not really alive your just going to be for a little bit." she said laughing a bit as if being alive was a laborious chore. There she goes using that word "fair" again... He's not sure how much he liked it.

"Gee thanks Lucy you sound like being alive is a bad thing" he said leaning against the desk sarcastically

"Eh,when you've never been to a place-"

"Yeah yeah when am I due for my Vacation."

She typed something into the computer real fast and smiled "Right after your done training you new partner"

Tack looked at her half-way not believing what he heard "What why me? What are you talking about I don't even know that much about this, how am i supposed to "train" anyone?"he said stretching his arms out in question.

"Well your due for one and im sure you'll do fine,everybody does,just teach her to be quiet around the dieing and write in a notebook, the lantern does the rest, how hard can it be?"she said smiling sadistically. She handed him another piece of paper."All you have to do is go through door number 114 and down the hall"

Tack gazed down at the piece of paper. A picture of a redhead girl with some freckles smiled back at him with a name titling her Meroko. He sighed and crumpled he paper"Ok then."he said,silently walking back to his door leaving a smiling blond girl behind. He got back into his house locking the door behind him. Here he was finally figuring things out the slightest bit and now he has to train someone,and some weird girl no less. He flattened out the paper looking at this 'Meroko' again. She wore some small glasses and had long red hair. She seemed to be around the age of 20 or so. Of all obstacles he never thought of a newbie for some reason. He frowned and crumpled the paper back up and throwing it on the counter and walking over to his hadn't been around anyone for a whole year, it was going to be strange talking to a random person now. He planted himself a seat and put his hands over his face,thing were going to get much more complicated.

Man,he needed a cup of coffee.


	2. Questions

Endless questions... the most important being, more or less, the purpose of there is the second question, what happens after death? The only people who can answer these questions themselves are dead...Having been both i would describe it as a strange almost hallucinating effect, for lack of a better word, its like a dream. Cliche I know but no proper way to put it. One of those dreams that you just can't seem to wake up from, no matter how burry and absurd it is. The sort of illusion that you [i]know[/i] couldn't be real and you try to wake yourself up. In this case, the dream was reality, or I am alive within some other persons dream. These are just another endless rambling of questions, but I ask the only ones I believe is worthwhile. Will we ever find these answers? Or are we even supposed to know them?

Things had changed. So many things. Things that had changed my view of life, even though im not sure I had many views in life. Everyone has their own way of thinking throughout life, each one may share similarities with others but mostly they are very unique. What did I think of life now? Given all that I have found out, all the strange thing even I could never imagine and yet still only the tip of the iceberg has been uncovered. Life is like a blink; it could be over before you even knew it: An old man dying from old age, or in my case, a young man about the age of twenty six.

I sat quietly waiting on a wooden bench in the white hallway of Tokyo City Hospital. The whiteness of the walls seemed overbearing and merciless to those who resided there - a bland white labyrinth where the only way out was good health or a body bag. I had never liked hospitals, ever since I was a little boy when I had broken my arm and had to have them put it in a cast. I still remember seeing all those people in the emergency room, bleeding, crying and just waiting to receive help. Its funny how I can remember my childhood, even most of my adult life, but they are all in fragments and pieces that barely seemed to fit. Like a puzzle with warped pieces. I shook my head, it was starting to feel cloudy; the disinfectant smell of the hospital is finally beginning to annoy me.

I often wonder why we care so much about the time, I guess it was easier for them to record information that way. It had been three years. At least three years by our standard time system. Time was only an illusion, I had learned early on. It was something that we created long ago to keep the everyone on track and organized. No matter what dimension you came from. 'Time', so to speak, is endless - continuously flowing and changing. So, a long time ago the we made a chart and system for us to measure time, it wasn't long before the earth's inhabitants found a way of measuring time as well, mostly involving stars. Its easier for us to record information that way.

Placing my hands together I fiddled with my hands. Linking the together usually. Nurses worked quietly at their stations so as not to disturb the sleeping patients. After three years it still wasn't any easier for me. It never got any easier. I wonder if I will ever get used to this life, or whatever it is. After all, she was just a kid, only seven years old. Hell, I couldn't even imagine only living seven years. There were so many things she would never experience. Not that I was any spring chicken when I was taken.

Sighing, I looked around the room before taking my stopwatch out of its pocket. It was a pretty silver one with a celtic design on it, I had alway had an interest in celtic lore. The dial inside showed that it was about 2:47am. I should be going. A tingling sense began at my fingers and slowly made its way up through my arms; I always got a nervous feeling beforehand. Standing up I then stretched my legs from being in a sitting position for so long. Turing to my right I walked into the room numbered #209. I try to be as silent as possible in my entrance. The room was cold but it has a slightly more pleasant smell then in the halls. Walking over to the single bed that seemed so alone in the center of the bland room. To the right of the bed sat to maroon chairs. One of which was occupied by a young sleeping asian woman, her jacket slung across her chest keeping her warm in the seemingly chilled room. Presumably her mother. Why did life have to be like this? Because a bunch of people at a high table said so, that's why, and she had to remember those dicks were the ones who ran things.

The girls' heart line beeped softly in the darkness. I stood quietly to the right of her bed. Rummaging through the black messenger bag on my side until I found the flap which held my tools. A small silver lantern about the size of a plum. Looping the lanterns chain around my ringers I also grabbed out the notebook and its the book my eyes scanned the page until he found it. On the page for Thursday.

"Tsun Okinama- Age 7"

Tears began to warm in my eyes, though they did not fall. She had cancer. It had taken over most of her left lung and heart, she had been diagnosed at the age of four. I looked down at the small withered looking brunette girl. She looked weak and helpless, more so then most children. I always thought of their parents in a situation like this; your child dying before you could even watch them grow up. All the things that they would miss, the things that 'could' have been... I couldn't even imagine the pain of losing Anna. Though, in a way, I am already lost forever to her. I try my best to keep the tears in, thinking about how I would never see my young daughter again.

I was brought out of these thoughts by the murmur of the girl waking up. Lowering my notebook I noticed the young girls brown eyes blinking lazily. My own eyes must have seemed a bit surprised because she seemed to be looking at my. I decide to smile since I didn't want to scare the girl.

"Hi, Tsun," I said awkwardly, trying my hardest not to seem to doom impending. She looks at me weakly for a moment. Her small body working so hard to keep up with its daily functions, it was exhausted just barely being alive.

"Are you an angel?" she asks me. Her voice was so hushed I felt like screaming inside, but now that I think about it, what am I? I definitely no angel, I know this already. I only ever looked at this as a job.

"Yes," I finally say to put her at ease. I don't mean to lie, it just slipped out'[i]Might as well let the child go in gently.[/i]' She looked up at me smiling, as if I had just assured her that Santa was real and the tooth fairy were real. I felt sorta bad lying to her but I didn't want to go through the shameful steps of trying to explain exactly what I am, since I barely know myself.

"Am I'm going to die now?" she whispers in a way that was so melancholy it was painful. This was a young girl who knew since she was very small that she might not make it through a comfortable life. Who would want to live their life in a hospital as a child? Maybe her small body had just given up. It was tired of the endless procedures, the constant medicine, the pain...

"I'm sorry to tell you, but yes," I say quietly as well. I didn't know any other way to put it to her. There was no candy coating it. no way to tip toe around looked down for a moment, thinking. She looked pale and tired, her body barely up to temperature in such a large cold room.

"Are you scared?" I ask.

"A little," she says sadly. "But I think that dying is a little bit like going to sleep. You close your eyes and dream."

This makes me smile, sitting down on the free chair next to the bed. The mother snoring softly away besides us. "That's a good way of putting it."

"I do have one question, though."

"What's that?"

"Will my mom be okay?"

"Well…" I think for a moment. "I believe that she will be fine, given time. She will not blame you for this. Thoughts of you will make her smile and in a sense, you will always live in her heart," I finished, looking for a meaning behind my own meaningless words. It wasn't untrue but I feel like there is no true way to describe losing a child, especially one to such a terrible disease. A parent losing their child was the worst possible outcome for them...I looked over to the sleeping mother next to myself, almost feeling guilty for what I have to do.

"Good, that's all I'm really worried about. I really don't want to leave her alone, after Papa left us... I was the only thing she ever worried about, she has always been so strong. I wished my body could have been as strong, but it's not up to me. I just hope that she finds happiness after all of this," she said closing her eyes. As is, "all of this" was just some sort of minor bump in the road.

My eyes stare at the bed three feet in front of me. A kid only seven years old was already more at peace about dying then I was and the thing she was worried about wasn't if there was a heaven or hell, but if her mom would be okay losing her. Tears began to swell up again, man I feel ignorant sometimes. This was the first time a child had woken up, the first time someone had seen me. Then again I came into the room myself.

I looked at the clock, then sighed. It is almost time.I open the notebook and count elven seconds before scribbling something onto a soon as my hand lifts from the letters, a small swirling light as soft as a feather and lighter then air floats from the small girls mouth, drifting lazily toward the open door of the lantern. Once inside, I closed the latch and kissed the lantern. The flatline of her life echoed through the quiet room as I return the lantern in my bag with the rest of the sitting in the chair I stare down at my feet. Thinking... A couple of tears hit my boots as I sit their waiting. The woman who had been sleeping solemnly until then jerks up to the sound of the machine and grabs her daughter, knowing what the noise means.

"Tsun! No, Tsun, baby, please no... Tsun!" she said helplessly trying to bring her young daughter back to life as if shaking her would wake her up. Tears immediately rolled down her checks as she yells for the nurse, cupping her daughters face gently in her hands she stares into the lifeless eyes of her child.

Not long after, a nurse rushed in, trying to save the young patient. I sit there until it was all over, quietly watching them as they wheel her small body bag out of the room. The young mother crushed, crying completely huddled limp on the floor, clutching the backpack of children toys and nic-nacs she had kept in her room.

Standing up, I get ready to leave. As I walked past her, I place 4[ my hand on her shoulder, I made my exit through the door.

Time of death 3:02[/size][/quote]


End file.
